Real-World Hepatitis C Cure Rates Are Excellent in Europeans With HIV

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According to real-world data about a diverse population of Europeans living with HIV and hepatitis C virus who were treated for HCV with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs), this population stands an excellent chance of curing hep C, aidsmap reports.

Researchers from the EuroSIDA collaboration conducted a prospective study of 632 HIV-positive adults who started DAA treatment for HCV between June 2014 and March 2017.

Findings were presented at the 52nd International Liver Congress in Paris.

The cohort had a median age of 51 years. Seventy-nine percent of the cohort were men, 58 percent had a history of injection drug use and one in three had cirrhosis. Ninety-nine percent had an HIV viral load below 500. The median CD4 count was 600.

Forty-six percent of the cohort took Harvoni (ledipasvir/sofosbuvir) with or without ribavirin and 20 percent took Sovaldi (sofosbuvir) plus Daklinza (daclatasvir) with or without ribavirin.

There were data for 468 members of the cohort on whether they had achieved a sustained virologic response 12 weeks after completing therapy (SVR12, considered a cure). Ninety-three percent of them were cured.

Factors associated with a greater chance of being cured included being white as opposed to nonwhite, having no or minimal fibrosis versus moderate or advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis, and taking DAAs for longer.

Eleven people stopped treatment because of toxicity, nine of them because of typical side effects of ribavirin.